Mercy
by PsycoticBlue
Summary: Three years after all the things that happened in the monsters mansion, Jeff has stumbled into a situation that he doesn't know how to handle but dives head first anyways (Sequel to Changing paces)


Jeff scuttled quickly through the woods, his feet carrying him as fast as they could. A small, wide-eyed child on his back clutched the front of his hoodie. He had gone on a trip into town with Ben, expecting to fuck with some few unsuspecting citizens, and they had gotten caught. Of course they had, it had to happen sometime, but this was bad. Very, very bad. They had lived in the mansion for three years without a problem… until tonight.

-Earlier at that evening –

The walls of the mansion were being bathed in the fading light of the sun set, the many windows lining the sitting room creating a beautiful view of the field behind it. The light stained everything in a soft orange as the sun set over the grassy hills. It felt like a calm day ending in a calm evening, but as always, things are not always as they seem when monsters are about.

"Hey Jeff," said Ben as he stood in front of Jeff. He was texting on a phone with something that looked suspiciously like fresh blood near the camera lenses and the logo on the front - probably stolen from his latest victim. Jeff looked towards him from his splayed out position on the love seat, his limbs all spread out and head hanging off the edge of the arm. "Yes Ben?" He said in a flat tone that resounded sharply off of the walls and echoed thinly about the hallways. Everyone was busy doing hell knows what, including Slenderman. That left Jeff and Ben to themselves in the house, which was probably a bad idea on everyone else's part, but who has time to babysit two psychos? Yeah, that's what I thought, no one.

"Let's go fuck shit up," Ben said, grinning. Jeff stared for a few seconds, letting the silence linger. Then he sat up slowly and turned his gaze to Ben.

"Okay," he agreed, getting up from the couch. "Let's fuck shit up."

Together they prowled the streets, the street lamps casting long shadows off their bodies into the distance. After vandalizing several buildings, murdering an entire nursing home and stealing from numerous cash registers, now they were searching for someone to just scare.

Passing dozens of unlit houses, Jeff and Ben kept walking until they came upon one with light. The house was old and rickety, and although most of the houses lights were off, there was one bedroom that had a light on. As they were examining it, the old decrepit house emitted the harsh sounds of breaking glass and the screams of a young child muffled by walls. Jeff's heart felt as if it had suddenly stopped. He felt such a rush to go in the house and do something that he could barely contain it. He started walking towards it.

"This one Ben; but the child we heard: Don't kill it." Ben tilted his head. He figured Jeff would leave the child as he had a bit of a soft spot for young children. Jeff started walking to the house. While Jeff stood on the rickety porch and slowly began turned the handle, Ben decided to do what he could do best, travel through the building's electric system/telephone wires and other electronic systems."

As Jeff crept in he heard the crying of a small child, and yelling from a man who was possibly a smoker in his forties judging by the rough sound/throaty gargle of his voice. From the inside, the house looked older, the floors were off-center and the walls had stains in them – they appeared to be dried blood and perhaps some nicotine, but mostly blood. It definitely smelled like blood and nicotine.

A flight of stairs headed up to a corner of the bedroom; the light, coming from a single bare bulb, cast down across the steps through a partially open door at the top. Walking towards the light, Jeff silently approached the stairs. He glanced carefully at the door and saw that it was positioned to cover his ascent up the stairs from anyone in the room until he reached the doorway. Judging from the state of the house, Jeff guessed that the man upstairs probably couldn't afford to keep many weapons.

Jeff began to creep up the stairs, which felt as if they should creak but were surprisingly sturdy. As he scaled each step, the yells and sounds of crying and a beating grew louder. He picked up the pace. Finally, reaching the top of the stairs, he hid just out of sight behind the doorway. He waited, until – all of a sudden – the power went out. 'Ah yes, Ben, thank hell for him,' thought Jeff ('Cause we all know God didn't make Ben. I mean, come on, who would believe that?). Jeff heard the man swear and began walking towards the door. 'This was my chance.'

Abruptly the man rounded the corner, crashing straight into him. Unaffected, Jeff let out a low chuckle.

"Go. To. Sleep." He said, adding scorn to the last word. The man's eyes widened in the dark a moment before Jeff stabbed him in the throat with all of his might, sending him keeling backwards, choking and gargling in his own blood. The man reached for his own throat in an attempt to stem the blood pouring from his neck, but stumbled again and collapsed.

The man hit the floor with a sickening 'THUD' and the single bare bulb in the bedroom flickered back on. Jeff walked past the dead man through the doorway to find a little girl staring at him. Her face was covered in bruises and her lip was split. She was shaking and terrified as she saw Jeff's knife.

"G-get back!" she screamed at him, and the window behind her shattered at the sound of her scream. The girl was not ordinary, not at all. Anyone could have felt the dangerous aura around her, despite her hardly unusual appearance. Jeff stared at her; to him she was a light, a young, beautiful light. Jeff dropped his knife and put his hands up, trying to show her that he wouldn't hurt her, but she kept backing away, crying and screaming. Jeff walked slowly towards her; she was shaking her head and backed up against the wall, terrified.

Jeff stopped and examined the room. It was barren and plain, save for some crayon drawings on the wall, speckled with blood. There was an old stuffed, cartoonish tiger on the bed that looked close to falling apart, and one quilt on the bed that looked like it was hand made – with care, that is. The girl was in a corner crying; next to her was a blue backpack with small flower designs all over it. A yellow raincoat was draped next to the backpack.

Jeff examined the child again. She had wavy red hair that reached almost to her butt and framed her small, round, doll-like face. Her eyes were large, round and blue. She was tiny and looked to only be about seven years old, but Jeff wasn't confident about his guess. He had never handled children very much, even before his incident. Jeff calmly approached the young girl who was still sobbing and trying to back further into the corner. Jeff simply put his fingers to his lips and softy hissed, "Shhhh," before bending down to her level. She flinched and screwed her eyes shut, trembling.

"Are you afraid of me?" The little girl, still shaking, nodded with her eyes now wide open, brimming with tears. Jeff shook his head; if he could have physically frowned right then, he would have. He tilted his head at her.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I saved you from the real monster," he said quietly, gesturing at the gutted corpse of the man who dared consider himself a father. She had stopped whimpering, but tears kept running down her face. Jeff slowly reached out to her, she looked at his pale, leathery hand and tried once again to escape but the wall was still there. Jeff finally simply placed a hand on her head.

"You're special. Why don't you come with me? There're lots of other people like you where I live. Maybe you'd get along with them." The girl was stunned; needless to say, she had thought she was going to die. This was unexpected, but she wasn't sure if she could trust him.

"W-what's your n-name," she stuttered out in a small high voice.

"Jeff. People call me Jeff the Killer. Most think that I'm a monster, but I'd rather be a monster than be human, so I take it as a compliment." The girl stared quietly.

"W-what happened to your face?" She said pointing. Jeff chuckled.

"I couldn't stop smiling and it hurt, so I made myself able to smile forever. I wanted to see my beautiful eyes so I burned my eyelids so I could see them all the time." The little girl grew a little frightened at this, but stood her ground.

"Where would we be going?"

"To a place where you can belong." Jeff replied in a happy voice.

"But I need parents. I'm a little kid," Jeff tilted his head again, and looked up for a second.

"I can be one of your parents." A smile grew on the little girl her face.

"Really?! You mean it?" Jeff nodded, and the little girl rushed forward and hugged him, despite being utterly terrified only moments ago. Jeff's eyes grew wider but he hugged her back. As they tightened their embrace, a voice called from the doorway.

"Well, well, looks like Jeffy has a soft spot. So cute." Jeff scowled at Ben's snickering over the girl's shoulder and quietly scooped up his knife and casually tossed it so it landed point-first in the wall next to Ben's head. This merely served to propel Ben into full-fledged laughter. Jeff rolled his eyes at his friend's antics and gently picked up the little girl who still had her arms wrapped around her neck.

"Whoa, dude, you're actually serious about taking that kid to mansion?" Ben asked, astonished. Jeff made a face.

"Of course," he clicked his tongue, "and she can stay there and be one of us. It'll be great!" he exclaimed, his permanent grin growing wider.

"Yay! Can we go home now, pleaaassee!" the little girl pleaded. Her tears had faded and she was fearlessly out of the corner now on Jeff's shoulder, one hand tugging on Jeff's sleeve. Jeff chuckled in amusement.

"Yeah, come on Ben." Ben's jaw dropped.

"You CAN'T be serious? How the hell are we suppose to explain this to the others? What will they think, Jeff? Imagine if they want to get rid of her! Plus you're already attached to her, which only makes it worse!" Jeff gave Ben a look as he crouched down and turn to face his back towards the kid.

"Hop on, little lady." She giggled a little and climbed on his back. Jeff stood up effortlessly. Looking at Ben, he walked straight past him not saying another word. The two walked down the stairs thinking that there would be no more people, but Jeff and Ben were, once again, mistaken.

"W-Who the hell are you!" came a grown women's voice from the corner; she must have been a girlfriend of the man. Or a whore – either one would've fit the bill. Even if she wasn't a whore, the assumption wouldn't have been far off; she was wearing a small, tight, blue sequins-covered skirt that only went less than half way down her thighs and a shirt that was blue as well, but lighter in comparison. The shirt was low cut, displaying her extremely large (and probably fake) boobs. She had make up plastered to her face like a harlequin, her hair was blonde and put up in a ponytail, and most importantly she had a flip phone in her hands; that's when it hit Ben and Jeff – this bitch must have called the police! They were going to have to make a fast run for it. Jeff stared at the lady, who was now shaking in fear at the sight of the horrific monster in front of her. Police sirens started up in the background and Jeff decided he had to make a quick decision before it was too late.

"Ben, kill the women; I'll leave out the backdoor into the woods with the kid and make a break for the abandoned children's park on the other side of town." Ben nodded. The lady's completion went from white to almost transparent. In a split second she tried to dart for the door, but Ben was faster. He swiftly snapped her neck before she could call for help.

Jeff was already heading to the backdoor, but found a pile of rubbish strewn in the way; next to the blocked door was a window that had been left open. Jeff removed the kid from his back.

"Alright; I need you to go out of this window, okay? Don't worry if you fall, it's not too high off the ground, and I'll be right there, okay?" The little girl nodded. Jeff opened the window as far as it could go, lifted the little girl by her waist and boosted her out of the window as carefully as he could. She hopped out the window onto the browning grass of her old home's backyard; Jeff slipped through the window behind her and landed softly next to her. He squatted down so she could get on his back. The red headed child climbed onto his back and clutched the front of his hoodie once more.

"Here we go!" Jeff laughed slightly maniacally, and started running; the little girl giggled happily. They took off into the forest and Jeff ran until his lungs felt numb. Finally they reached the park.

Old, tattered playground equipment sat in groups, looking like carnival antiques with their dust and rust and broken parts. Jeff let the little girl down gently and sat her on one of the old swings. It creaked slightly like old bones might at being moved for the first time in a while. She smiled at Jeff.

"Why are you smiling?" he asked.

"Because, you're smiling!" she laughed happily.

"Happy people make me happy," Jeff chuckled back. "What's your name kid?"

"My name is Mercy!" She cried out happily.

"Well, my name is Jeff. Nice to meet you, Mercy." Mercy continued to smile and Jeff ran up behind her, "Want me to push you?" Jeff swore he saw her face light up 6 shades brighter if that was even possible.

"Yeah!" Jeff gently pushed her and she giggled.

They just had to wait for Ben, who would probably be there any moment. Hopefully the police hadn't spotted them, though it was rather dark. It was a sad situation, but Jeff was determined to get the kid back to the mansion. Although his surroundings and his situation seemed dark, as he pushed the kid on the swing the world couldn't have been any brighter for Jeff.


End file.
